Mr. Daintith is currently CFO at Daily Mail & General Trust PLC, the British newspaper and magazine publisher, and worked previously as an executive at Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

An accountant, the 52-year-old reportedly has little manufacturing experience. That is similar to Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East, who was with chip designer ARM Holdings PLC before he became chief executive in July 2015.

At Rolls-Royce, Mr. Daintith will have to deal with the effects of a long-term sales practice in which the company sold its engines in combination with a servicing contract.

Although Rolls-Royce booked profits in part with the delivery of the engine, actual payments only came in over time, making it difficult for analysts to get an understanding of the financial situation, said Sandy Morris, an analyst at Jefferies LLP in London.

Between 2003 and 2015, the company sold the majority of its engines with these “TotalCare” contracts, Mr. Morris said.

However, with the introduction of the Trent XWB engine, revenues from services accounts will no longer be brought forward, as Rolls-Royce now vends engines and maintenance services separately.

Rolls-Royce currently has around 1600 orders for the Trent XWB engine. “Because of the changing nature of our order book, the amount of linked engine contracts will over time come down,” a spokesperson said.

In July, Rolls-Royce announced a new reporting structure, which it plans to explain in more detail later this year. The underlying reason for the changes is the introduction of a new accounting standard called IFRS 15 in 2018.

The accounting practice at Rolls-Royce confused analysts and market observers for more than a decade. “Rolls-Royce’s accounting structure was opaque and hard to understand,” Mr. Morris said. “The impact of stopping this practice was negative for Rolls-Royce’s results.”

In February, Rolls-Royce made its first dividend cut in 24 years after a string of profit warnings.

The company currently has a negative cash flow between £100 million ($129.7 million) and £300 million, Mr. Morris said. “It could be another three years before Rolls-Royce generates enough cash to make its dividend grow again,” he said.

Mr. East has announced plans to eliminate at least 600 management positions to reduce costs and increase profitability. In addition, the company is cutting a further 3,600 jobs to reach cost savings of £150 million to £200 million a year by the end of 2017.

Besides the large order book for new types of engines for Airbus Group SE and Boeing Co., Rolls-Royce faces additional challenges in its marine division. The company is no longer associated with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd., the luxury car maker owned by BMW AG.

The company has so far held on to its A rating. However, in 2015, Fitch Ratings lowered the outlook to negative. “At the moment, Rolls-Royce is not meeting the expectations that we have towards an A-flat rating,” said Tom Chruszcz, a director at Fitch.

Mr. Daintith has been appointed CFO not because of his industry background but because of his spirit, the analysts say. “The one thing CEO East repeats is that he wants to inject pace into the organization. That includes the CFO position,” said Mr. Morris.

Nevertheless, there are doubts about Mr. Daintith’s lack of experience with industrial products.

“The demands of accounting for uncertain complex projects are likely to be significantly different to those that the new CFO faced in the media sector,” said Andre Spicer, a professor for organizational behaviour at Cass Business School in London.

Mr. Daintith has “deep understanding of international business and his record of achievement in change management are particularly relevant to Rolls-Royce as we build our business and respond to the growing global requirement for our technology,” Mr. East said according a statement issued by the company.

Mr. Daintith did not respond to a request for further comments.

Prior to his career in media, Mr. Daintith worked at British American Tobacco PLC, the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority and PriceWaterhouse Coopers LLP.

At Rolls-Royce, Mr. Daintith will have to provide confidence for investors and customers even before the financial position of the company starts improving.

“Rolls-Royce should be in better shape by 2020,” Mr. Morris said. “But investors have a three-year investment horizon, so there needs to be some assurance that the company is on the right track.”

Up until now, the company has not provided any numbers on how the introduction of IFRS 15 will affect its balance sheet.

“IFRS 15 focuses more on the transfer of control over an asset,” said John Boulton, technical strategy manager at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in London. “This does have implications for how aircraft-engine makers report their sales.”

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